As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users are information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes, thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems, e.g., computer, personal computer workstation, portable computer, computer server, print server, network router, network hub, network switch, storage area network disk array, RAID disk system and telecommunications switch.
Information handling systems are becoming more and more important in both business and personal life. Important and critical information handling systems may be remote and/or unattended such as for example, but not limited to, servers and/or storage devices. Therefore, power failures/outages may be catastrophic to the operation of these servers and/or storage devices, leaving them unable to service user requests. For example, an iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) may be used to facilitate data transfers over intranets, e.g., local area networks (LANs) and/or to manage storage over long distances, e.g., wide area networks (WANs) and the Internet, thereby enabling location-independent data storage and retrieval.
The remote and/or unattended information handling systems that use, for example, iSCSI protocol would have no way of responding to a request if power was interrupted. Such a power interruption may leave iSCSI initiators and/or management applications with little information about the state of a target system except that it can no longer communicate with the initiator. Presently, information handling system servers and/or storage devices may use “flea power” to keep appropriate controllers and/or communications devices, e.g., network interface card (NIC), operational during hibernate or sleep modes, however, if there is a complete loss of utility (AC mains) power, even the flea power may no longer be available to power critical controllers and/or communications devices.
Power failures/outages may be catastrophic to information handling systems, e.g., servers and/or storage devices, especially when remote from the user's location and/or unattended, by rendering them unable to service any user requests and/or maintain data integrity. Information handling systems may use supplemental power sources, e.g., battery back-up systems, to provide temporary for the management and storage controllers under power failure conditions. The battery back-up systems may have limited life and add to the space required for the information handling system.
There may be a number of interface cards that during normal operation may be in critical stages when a power outage happens. Battery back-up systems may not be reliable and the batteries may malfunction or indicate false failure reports. Information handling system critical interfaces continue to increase their power requirements and may stretch battery back-up systems to their mechanical and electrical limits.